Thursday, March 24, 2016

Social Media and Feminism

The media has always had a huge
effect on what people think and believe. More recently, however, social media
sites have been making an even bigger effect. For some, social media is a place
to post pictures and see what others are up to. Others use social media as a
form of communication. More recently, social media has become a main news
service. If anything out of the ordinary occurs all you have to do it log onto
your Facebook and it is everywhere on your timeline.

This article talks about how
social media is becoming such a vital source for the feminism movement and
changing peoples’ mind about what being a feminist is. The stereotypes that
come along with feminism are taken to such an extreme and it is almost comical.
The article touches on the different hashtags that have made some companies
remove sexist products. By using social media, the feminist movement could have
such a bigger, more positive voice. Social media is used by all ages and if
people start to understand it and see it on something that consumes so much time
there will be an effect.

3 comments:

Alex,Social media is a huge platform to voice your opinion. Anything you can think of, you can practically say, which is very crazy. But, reading over the article, I think it's a big step in feminist movement. Being viral means others who wouldn't typically hear about them now know who they are. Which in my opinion is always a wonderful thing. It's spreading and getting the word out about who they are and what they stand for.

I totally agree that social media is a huge and impactful platform. I think without social media, feminism would have so much trouble gaining ground, especially considering the mass media might not find that to be the most profitable cause. I think it's also extremely important to note that intersectional feminism couldn't be a thing if we didn't have a wide and varied range of voices contributing to the conversation, and technology and social media allows for a lot more voices to add into the conversation. I do think it's important to acknowledge though that sometimes, the lack of a filter can add voices and ideas that don't necessarily benefit the common perception of feminism. Often times, there are a few voices that are contributing that are either narrow minded or dangerous to the idea of feminism. Obviously I wouldn't suggest cutting out or filtering voices but I do think it adds another layer to the topic.

This was a really interesting article. I think after reading this that there are many platforms out there of technology that benefit and support the cause of feminism and men and women becoming equal, yet I definitely know of and acknowledge that there are many forms of social media that widen and widen the gap between men and women. In realizing that social media is a very powerful tool, it is my hope that more sites and accounts come out that boost feminism rather than try to tear it down because as Ayanna says, "Spreading and getting the word out about who they are and what they stand for" can be a positive thing, if done correctly.